'Major blasting' done for LIRR's East Side Access

A worker directs oncoming equipment at the construction site of the East Side Access project several stories below Grand Central Terminal that will become a LIRR station. (March 20, 2013) Photo Credit: Craig Ruttle

"Much work remains to be done to build the platforms and tracks, and finish what is currently raw, cavelike space. But we now have a fully built shell in which all future work will take place," he said.

The two caverns underneath Grand Central Terminal will eventually have eight tracks and platforms, 160 feet below street level, that will give LIRR commuters access to the East Side side by 2019, according to the MTA, parent agency of the LIRR.

Workers have set off more than 2,400 controlled explosions of the powder Emulex during the six years of blasting, the MTA said. Some minor blasting may still have to be done to even out parts of the caverns, the agency said.